Florida is about to
limit access to the powerful pain medication OxyContin, by tightening
regulations for Medicaid patients taking the drug. The federal
government reports that
OxyContin played a role in more than 100 deaths since it was approved in
1995.

Experts agree, abusers who tamper with the tablet, and then take it
incorrectly, put
themselves at tremendous risk to get a huge dose of medication that can
stop their
breathing and be fatal. But, when used properly, OxyContin is described
as a miracle
drug for people who suffer from chronic pain.
=====================
74 year old Ed Madonia could hardly walk a few months ago, and had to
give up his
volunteer work, the result of severe bone disease. Then he got into a
pain management
program run by Lynne Carr Columbus, D.O. Columbus in Palm Harbor. She prescribed 20
milligrams
of the narcotic pain medication, OxyContin, twice a day.

OxyContin is an extended release pill, designed to give patients a small
dose of pain
medicine every hour for 12-to-18 hours.. it's usually taken twice a day,
rather than
every four to six hours with shorter acting narcotics.

---Lynne Carr Columbus, D.O. Columbus, Pain Management Specialist: "So this gives
them a smoother
more controlled pain relief, patients who are on extended release
narcotics also don't
get a high when they take these medications, patients who are on the
shorter acting
narcotics do tend to get a high."---

She calls it an important drug in the arsenal for helping people in
chronic pain, cancer
patients for example and those who suffer from spinal stenosis, a
narrowing of the
spinal canal which causes pain the back and legs. That was 67 year old
Bert Savage's
problem, until 8 months ago, when he started on OxyContin.

---Bert Savage, Chronic Pain Patient: "So I've gone from relatively
crippled to being
able to function."---

That's why he's worried about the state limiting access because of what
seems to be
a relatively small number of OxyContin abusers.

---Bert Savage: "I am concerned about it Irene, because a lot of people,
good people
who are suffering are going to be deprived of a good medicine."---

====================== Lynne Carr Columbus, D.O. monitors OxyContin patients closely, and they must
agree to follow
certain rules for use of narcotics, including random drug testing. To
learn more about
this medication, click on "oxycontin" on the links we mentioned page of
TBO.com.